After a six-day battle for life, Mohammad Shahjahan, a cook from Mymensingh who reportedly fell victim to an arson attack by pickets, succumbed to his injuries at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) yesterday.
Shahjahan, 30, who was undergoing treatment at the intensive care unit of the DMCH burn unit with 31% critical burn, died at around 1:45pm.
He suffered his injuries on the evening of December 21, when blockade supporters allegedly hurled a petrol bomb at the auto-rickshaw he was on near Ahmedpur, while he was returning home at Noyahati in Mymensingh. He was brought to the DMCH later that night.
Shahjahan, a father of two and the sole breadwinner of his six-member family, worked at a restaurant in Mymensingh and lived away from family in the town, said his mother Bulbul Begum.
“He usually comes to visit us once a week. He was going to make one of those visits that night.”
Bulbul cried: “My younger son died of cancer four years ago.... Who would look after the family if he dies?”
However, local Gouripur police have claimed that Shahjahan’s death was mysterious.
“We have conducted an investigation after the incident and found unusual things.
There was no incident of picketing or petrol bomb hurling in that area that night,” said Hamidul Islam, officer-in-charge of Gouripur police station.
“There were two more passengers on the backseat of the vehicle and Shahjahan sat on the middle. Other two passengers were unhurt,” he said.
“We have also interrogated the auto-rickshaw driver. He said, in the looking glass he saw a flame on Shahjahan’s lap all of a sudden.
Panicked, the driver lost control over the steering and after hitting a roadside structure the vehicle turned upside down,” the OC said.
“The driver did not see any picket fleeing from the spot”, he claimed.
A case has been filed with the police station in this connection without naming anybody.